Health adaptations

Universal public health care is well-established in Canada. Therefore, we may only need to modify education, monitoring, or surveillance measures to increase our adaptive capacity for climate change. (1)

Protecting the most vulnerable citizens will go a long way in safeguarding the health and well-being of all residents of the Prairies in the future.

Some adaptation responses in other sectors will directly alleviate the health consequences of climate change. For example, successful adaptation to drought in the agriculture sector to drought will decrease the stress and financial constraints experienced by agricultural workers, their families and associated communities.

Building the capacity to link current climate-sensitive health outcomes (e.g. respiratory illnesses) to weather and climate variables will allow researchers to better determine how changes in climate might affect illness patterns in the future.

Here are examples of research gaps and additional capacity needed to reduce specific health-related outcomes: (2)